One Shot Bargain (7 page)

Even though he had a key to her room he knocked on the door.  He did not want to startle her any further.  He’d learned from the people who had interrogated him that she had been cut and threatened.  Although he wanted nothing more than to come up here and comfort her, he was worried that she would have left already. 

Just as he was about to turn into his room and leave her alone for the night the door swung open. 

Randa stood there in the sheltered darkness of the room.  He saw that her arm was bandaged and that she had changed clothes. 

“I just wanted to come and see how you were doing,” he told her as she stepped away from the door and let him into the room. 

“I think I’m okay,”  she told him.  “The wound is only skin deep so it shouldn’t keep me from playing tomorrow.”

“I’m not worried about whether or not you can play pool tomorrow,” he said, “I’m a lot more worried about how you are coping.  After all, that is someone you once knew and cared about who just cut and threatened you.”

Randa looked at him, holding her wounded arm in front of her stomach almost like a shield.  “I don’t think I could handle being the person who kept you from winning back your grandfather's cabin.”

“I don’t want the cabin back if it means causing you any problems or pain,”  he told her as he pulled her close.  “You are more important than the cabin.  If you don’t want to play tomorrow, we don’t play.”

Randa sighed, and he felt the tension seep out of her limbs as she stood there.   “I appreciate that.  But I really just want to play.  I do not want them to look as if they have won already.”  She paused and he could tell that she wanted to say more, so he waited for her to continue. “I found the flowers outside, and the note.  I just wanted to say thank you.”

He blinked for a second, trying to think about what she was referring to before he remembered that he had put the note about the scholarship in the card.  “Of course.”

“No one has ever done so much for me.  No one has done anything so kind for me.”

Drake smiled and pulled her close, curling his arms around her in a protective stance.  “Win or lose tomorrow I wanted you to have something you could hold onto, something you could be proud of.  But my leaving to take care of that got you in trouble.  I should have been here to keep you from getting hurt.”

She chuckled and looked up at him, and when he saw the fire in her face he was so happy that the incident from earlier hadn’t forced her to start emotionally withdrawing like he’d feared.  “I don’t think you can be there all the time.  Things are going to happen that you cannot prevent.  I’m just glad you came when you did.”

“I’m glad too.” He told her, leaning down and gently kissing her as he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. 

Win or lose that tournament tomorrow, he’d already decided it didn’t matter.  His grandfather had been right all along.  Home was more than just a building with walls.  He knew that as long as Randa was with him he would feel at home wherever he was, and he intended to spend as
much time as he needed demonstrating how important she was to him.

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- Mia Grandy

© 2013 Mia Grandy

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